Highschool of murder
by Tianna Black
Summary: "So I am not a user" Joey left out a breath of relief, happy that he didn't have to kill anyone in order to stay alive himself. "Not yet" the Shinigami answered. A hunt for the death note, taking place in Domino City. A lot of dueling, drama and unexpected shipping!
1. Chapter 1

**I think I managed to keep all the characters in character. I'm really not sure if I should make this story take place before the Kira case even happened, or should it be something like the part 2 of my Death note: Back in time story? If you haven't read that one until now, check it out immediately. Please tell me what you think, it's a great help. Don't forget to review, and if you liked it, add it to your favorites. If you like it enough to keep reading the chapters that will be posted soon, I'll be happy if you'd follow, just because it will let me know how many people actually want me to keep writing.**

* * *

><p>It was already past midnight, the last day of the winter holidays. Most people were already lying in their beds, sunken in the soft darkness of their sleeps, preparing themselves for the Monday-morning. To some, it meant school or college again. To the others, it meant work and work, until the next holidays come. Students swore that they would learn and get better grades. It was about passing the year or having to attend school one year longer. It meant something for everyone but Seto. For him, it meant nothing.<p>

He stood up and went to the coffee machine. It was his third cup in the past five hours, and each time he swore that it would be the last one. Then he would sit back in his chair again and work until the cup got empty and his eyes almost closed, and so the circle repeated.

Sometimes he felt like sleep was only a distraction in his life, something that kept him further away from his goals than he'd be if he'd work all night long. However, that didn't mean that he could prevent it from happening.

He looked at his watch. 2 A.M. Monday, the 11th . He couldn't stand Mondays. Having to spend hours in the same building as the geek patrol, or the rest of the people who didn't accomplish anything in their lives made him want to vomit.

"Only one more year" he thought, as he shut is laptop down, realizing that there was no coffee which would've kept him awake after such a long day. He didn't even change into his pajamas. He would change in the morning, he thought. He lay down onto his bed, which felt as comfortable as never before, and as soon as he closed his eyes, he heard the alarm ringing.

His head was all dizzy. He barely managed to shut the noise down without falling off the bed. He looked at the clock: 7 A.M.

"Crap" he said.

He went to take a shower, trying to be as fast as possible, but the water was so beautifully warm. He almost fell asleep standing, which made him exchange the warmth for the coldest water that could be set. He nearly had a heart-attack, but it woke him up enough to realize that he would be late. He even thought of skipping school that day, but then he remembered what one of his teachers told him a month before.

_"Mr. Kaiba, I know that you are very busy ruling such a big company. That would be exhausting for many youngsters. Still, you are not allowed to skip school this often. From now on, you will attend all your classes no matter what. You are only allowed to be absent in a case of illness or emergency, otherwise I'll have to contact the headmaster and he will be obligated to take precautions, is that clear?"_

And it was clear, indeed. He hated the fact that there was still someone who was setting rules for him. He hated being told what to do. And yet, nobody except of him, cared, which made him unable to change a thing.

He left the shower and put some fresh clothes on.

"Roland" he said, talking into the collar of his white leather coat.

"Yes?" the highest-level security guard of the Kaiba-Corp and Seto's greatest confidante answered.

"Get me a coffee, now".

And in less than five minutes, Roland was waiting in front of the limousine with a sugar-free coffee in his hand. Taking it, Seto entered the car and mentally prepared for seven hours of pure boredom and non-productivity.

The school seemed empty when he arrived. That didn't change when he entered either. Except of some teachers, the hallway was completely empty. He entered his classroom, which was not different than the rest of the school, empty, with only is psychology teacher inside.

That man was probably the only teacher in school who didn't treat him like some upper force. He never addressed him as "Mr. Kaiba" or tried to make him feel more comfortable than the rest of the students in the class.

At first it did bother Seto, a lot, but then, after realizing that other teachers in school only tried to get his attention, killing him with their "respect", in fact only hoping that Seto would introduce them to some important people, he started spending more time in the psychology class than in any other.

"Morning Seto" he heard the man say, as he went to his place.

"Morning" he answered. "Where is everyone?"

"School starts at 10 today. You're early" the man said, smiling.

Great, another two hours of his life lost, unused. He was just about to take his laptop out and do something, which of course had nothing to do with school. It would've been more of a distraction than actually work, when he heard the door open. Usually, he wouldn't even take a look at the person who entered, but this time, it was too weird not to be looked at, even for Seto.

At the entrance, he saw a young man. He didn't seem very tall, but Seto noticed that it was due to the way he stood. If he would've stood straight, he would be about 178 cm tall. He wore some baggy jeans and a loose, white, long-sleeve shirt. It was cold outside, but the boy didn't seem to have a jacket, neither to be cold himself. His black hair covered a part of his face, which made Seto think that there was another emo joining the class.

"Great, the geek patrol's about to expand" he thought, thinking of Yugi and the way he used to dress. That is, until he looked closer into the newcomers face. He was completely pale. It seemed like he was suffering a bad illness. His eyes were dark gray, underlined by dark rings, like the ones of someone who hasn't slept the whole night. No, that guy looked like someone who had never slept in their entire life.

He closed the door, entering the classroom.

"Good morning!" the professor said. "Yet another student who could've slept one more hour, but preferred to come to school. You must be Light."

Not returning the professor's sarcasm, the boy answered:

"That's no problem, I haven't slept anyway".

There was no change of pitch in the tome of his voice. He sounded as bored as a person only could be. "And no" he added, "I'm not Light. The name's Hideki Ryga".

"Hideki, you say?" the old man asked, searching for the name on his list. "Oh, I see. You signed up this morning. You are lucky to have gotten accepted, young man. There are no many free places in the school this year".

"Yes, it must've been luck" Hideki answered, almost as if wanted to say that luck has nothing to do with his acceptance. As if he wanted to say that he was powerful enough to come and go whenever he wanted.

He walked past Seto, taking a place in the last row. Then he stood up again, as if he had remembered some very important thing he had forgotten. He slowly walked out the classroom, and after five minutes, returned with a coffee in his hand.

"No wonder he needs one" Seto thought, noticing how tired the man behind him seemed.

Hideki took a seat at his place, putting the coffee on the table. Then, he took a little wooden box out of his pocked. The box seemed expensive and very important to him. He opened it and started taking sugar cubes out, almost as if not realizing that the coffee would become too sweet of he put too much sugar in it. After about ten cubes, he closed the box and started drinking the coffee.

And then, something else drew Seto's attention. Hideki had his feet on his chair, not on the floor, where they belonged. And his feet were bare, because he clearly forgot to take his shoes up with his feet. Or was it absently?

"Excuse me, Hideki, but I'll have to ask you to sit properly in your chair" the teacher said, putting one of the teacher-smiles on.

"I hear that too often" the pale boy answered, not returning the obviously fake smile or moving a finger.

"You could get serious back-pain, you know that?"

"If I sat properly" Hideki answered, putting another sugar cube into his coffee, followed by another one, and then a third one, as if he would be trying to build a block house inside his cup, "my reasoning ability would drop by forty percent, and I don't want that to happen. My reasoning ability is very important to me".

The silence in the room became awkward. The psychology teacher, who was always able to analyze one's personality, had nothing to say this time. Seto was glad that he had never been the type of a person to talk a lot with others, so the fact that he remained silent this time didn't seem rare, and Hideki, he just kept playing with his sugar cubes, waiting for his coffee to cool.

And then, the door opened again.

"Morning" the young man said, closing the door behind him.

The teacher seemed very glad that someone, who would break the silence, entered.

"You are the only one left to be Light Yagami. Please tell me I'm right" the old man smiled. It seemed to Seto that Hideki crept him out a little, so no wonder that he was glad to see one more normal looking and acting person in the class.

"Yes" Light smiled "It's me. Where can I sit?"

"Take a seat wherever you would like to. I'll introduce the two of you to the class in then minutes" the professor said.

Light walked towards the row which was next to the window and took a seat. Seto noticed that the person who usually sat there was Wheeler, and the fact that he would come too late when all the places have been already taken, and have to sit next to the creep behind them made him smirk. Teasing Wheeler was still the biggest amusement for him.

Then, he heard the bell ringing, and just as he thought, the class filled with all the people he couldn't stand.

A couple of minutes passed until everyone found their place. Wheeler wasn't there yet, and Seto couldn't wait for him to come.

"Now, my fellow students, I want to introduce you to two of your new classmates, Hideki Ryga and Light Yagami".

The two boys, who were the complete opposites of each other, stood up and walked to the front, ready to tell something about themselves. All the boys, even Yugi Moto and his friend Tristan, couldn't help but notice how creepy Hideki looked like. Some even made jokes of him, but stopped as soon as they saw that Hideki didn't listen to them at all. His attention was drawn to something else in that class, but Seto couldn't say what it was.

The girls didn't notice him at all. Their eyes were focused on Light Yagami. His was tall, his body was muscular, but not too much to make him look like a fitness-freak and his face was perfect. His brown eyes seemed to sparkle, in harmony with his straight brown hair.

"Would you please introduce?" the teacher asked, and Light was the first one to start talking.

"Well, hello!" he said, smiling, and pulling his hand trough his hair. It seemed that all the girls would fall dead immediately. For Seto, irritating as hell.

"My name's Light. I signed up for the student's exchange program, and now I am here" he said, smiling. But then, it was Hideki's turn.

"I'm Hideki Ryga".

That was it. All he had to say was his name. Well, nobody seemed to want more, so they both return to their places, Light, followed by flirt-tries of the girls who wanted him badly, and Hideki all alone, not because nobody cared about him. It was more because people were scared of him and tried to avoid eye-contact at all costs.

The teacher talked something about mental disorders and everybody was taking notes. Well, everybody except of Hideki. He just stared into the air in front of him, which upset the teacher.

"Hideki, would you please repeat what I just said?" he asked.

And in that moment, the bell rang.

Yugi stood up and went to Hideki. Tea was the first one to talk to Light, followed by all the other girls in the class.

"You had luck this time" Yugi said, smiling. "He gives a lot of bad grades if you don't pay attention".

Hideki looked at him.

"A mental disorder, also called a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a mental or behavioral pattern or anomaly that causes distress or disability, and which is not developmentally or socially normative. Mental disorders are generally defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts, thinks or perceives. This may be associated with particular regions or functions of the brain or rest of the nervous system, often in a social context. Mental disorder is one aspect of mental health" he said, quoting the teacher with the same boring tone as all the time.

"Wow" Yugi looked stunned. "You sure did pay attention".

"He has it from Wikipedia. I get to read a lot about that" he answered, not even sarcastic. "Hey, where's the cafeteria? I could really use a cake right now".

"I could come with you" the short, blonde boy smiled. "I could show you the rest of the school, so you can be more familiar with it".

"No need for that, I didn't plan to stay for long" Hideki answered, standing up as the acceptance of Yugi's offer to take him to the cafeteria. "Where is the guy who usually sits where Light Yagami sits right now?"

"How do you know that someone is sitting there usually?" Yugi asked, really surprised. He wasn't the only one. Kaiba couldn't overhear that.

"It's simple. Light was the third person to enter the classroom, and when the rest of the students came, nobody looked at him strangely, or asked him to move. Nobody even gave a sign that they noticed where he sat, except of you and Seto Kaiba".

Kaiba got even more curious now. He heard his name. Hideki never even looked at him, but he had still noticed that Kaiba thought of Light Yagami and the place he had chosen to sit on. So, his mumbo-jumbo about the reasoning ability wasn't that much of mumbo-jumbo after all…

"And then I realized that nobody took a seat next to me, which made me realize one student skipped school today, since your teacher said that there were no free places in the school anymore" he went on, finishing his sentence.

"Are you a detective or something?" Yugi giggled, obviously stunned by the way Hideki was thinking.

"Me? Nah" Hideki smirked, leaving the classroom.

* * *

><p><strong> Okay, what do you think? Tell me everything, seriously. If you don't want me to know who you are, just write your review as a guest. I already have some plans on what should happen in the future, but I'd love to hear your ideas too! Like always, message me if you want your ideas to be our little secret. And visit my profile, you might find something that could interest you there. Thanks for reading, stay awesome 3<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**_Authors note:_** I must be the worst writer on fanfiction! After one year, I finally got the inspiration to write again. But I am so inspired, that I wrote at least three chapters in the past few hours, and I will write even more, posting them all in the next couple of days. **Don't forget to review, I am always happy to see constructive criticism! **

Thank you for your patience and for reading my story, I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing it!

* * *

><p>As Joey Wheeler entered the alley, heading towards his house, he had the feeling as if someone watched him. And he was, he just didn't know by whom. No matter how often he turned his head from one side to the other or inconspicuously looked over the shoulder, he couldn't see anything suspicious. He did imagine shadows and silhouettes in the neighbor's garden or behind a nearby tree, but that was it – only his imagination. Still, as soon as he turned his head and looked forward again, he could feel the breezy, cold breath on his neck.<p>

He was happy that the alley was quite a short one and that he reached his house soon. With a notebook in one hand, he proceeded to find the key with the other, searching through all of his pockets, eventually opening the door and rushing inside, but not before turning back one last time, to check if there really was nothing – or no one - he left behind.

Nobody was home. His father was most probably working, he had to work a lot at nights in the past few weeks, and until Serenity's arrival were two weeks left. He was all alone.

He went to the bedroom and took a seat on his bed. The deck in his pocket made it quite uncomfortable to sit properly, so he reached into it and put the cards on the desk. Then, he looked into the weird notebook he was holding.

"_What are you?"_ he thought.

_The human whose name is written in this note shall die._

That's what it said, and that's what confused Joey a bit. While dueling in Battle City and other tournaments, he already made himself familiar with the weirdest items one could imagine, from necklaces which predicted the future to puzzles in which ghosts of ancient emperors lived, but this, this looked nothing like the millennium items. This was a notebook, a notebook written in English. He thought how real enchanted, bewitched items always had some strange text on them, or at least related to them, written in an even stranger language like Latin or Old Egyptian.

And that seemed reasonable for two reasons. First of all, before people had all the technology and the completely controlled society, people possessed knowledge of witchcraft and wizardry, and that's when the dead languages used to be spoken. And secondly, it was a good way of preventing every basic mortal from unleashing the mystic powers. He remembered how Yugi got his millennium puzzle, and how much effort his grandpa put into that journey. So how was it possible that a note, a death note, basically falls from the sky right in front of him?

And although the left side of his brain repeatedly told that it had to be a hoax, some sensation he had never before experienced forced him to believe the opposite. Was it the fact that so many insane things had already happened, that he didn't even need proof to believe such in things? Or was it the cold breath he still felt behind his ear, that made him think he wasn't alone with his note?

"Okay donkeyhead, stop blowing into my earlobe or my right fist will blow right into your face!" he said, jumping off his bed, but still, hoping that it would only be his brain playing games on him and that nobody would respond. Unfortunately, that is not what happened.

A moment or two had passed, and then he saw it.

The ugliest monster he had ever seen, the scariest one, an angel of death, floated right in front of him.

"Aaagh!"

He threw himself backwards onto the floor, trying to crawl into the corner of the room but not able to look away from the demon in front of him.

As the complete opposite to his reaction, the thing did nothing but to grin. It seemed to peacefully float in the thin air with its arms hanging next to its body. If he had not been as scared, it would remind Joey of himself during most of his classes.

Its black clothes and pale skin made the boy remember a duel he once fought, where zombie monsters almost destroyed his future as a duelist.

He could do nothing but to stare, waiting for it to kill him or at least to stop grinning. But instead, he only heard a deep, scratchy voice saying:

"Punch me".

A moment of silence followed.

"_This must be a duel monster",_ Joey thought, and so he tried to check if his assumptions were true. But all he managed to say was some vowel he wasn't even sure was in the alphabet. He took a deep breath and got up, then tried again.

"A-are you a duel monster?" he asked.

"What in the hell is a duel monster?" the demon asked, but it didn't sound like he would actually care about the answer. "I am Ryuk, the Shinigami who dropped the note into the human world".

"A Shinigami? And the human world? What? Are you from the Shadow Realm?"

Joey didn't feel like he could follow the Shinigami, or whatever he was. Sure, everything he said was clear, but it sounded strange. The boy knew quite something about strange and paranormal, so why did nobody ever tell him anything about Shinigamis?

"A god of death" the Shinigami said. "You seem surprised to see me" and after a short break he mumbled "And I am even more surprised to see you".

Not having the feeling that Ryuk intended to kill him, Joey stood completely straight now.

"Well excuse me for not expecting to see a grinning Satan in my room. So why are you here? Is it because of the notebook I found? You can have it back if you want to".

"Yeah yeah" the Shinigami seemed to mumble more to himself then to Joey. "I am here because of the notebook, but the plan was different. I am here because of the notebook, but I am not meant to be here, in this room".

Then, it seemed to Joey that Ryuk grinned even more than he initially did, if that was even possible. "I cannot repeat this often enough. Humans are so much fun".

Joey didn't quite understand, and a voice in his head, which sounded mature and reasonable, told him that it is alright that way. It was better if he didn't understand it. The Shinigami dropped the notebook, and he should have it back, that is why he was there. Joey is a duelist, not a social worker for Shinigamis, so whatever problem this one had, it would be best if the boy simply apologized for the inconvenience and returned the death note. Then he would lay back onto his bed and look through his deck again, admiring his Red Eyes Black Dragon, his Time Wizard and all the other cards that only brought him luck.

But Joey was famous for not doing what he was told to, so he ignored his own common sense and proceeded to talk with the god of death.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"Oh, you will see soon enough" was the answer he got. "The notebook you are holding is quite unusual, as you might have noticed. It is a note of death. You can kill anyone with it, any way you want. Some people holding it declared themselves Gods. But for it to work, there are some rules you have to follow, and they are all written inside".

"Oh the lesson on death notes is not necessary, since I don't plan on killing anyone" Joey said, but couldn't resist looking into the note and reading further. He was surprised to see that almost every situation possible was covered.

You could not kill someone by mistake because you had to think of their face, not only their name, while writing it down. They would simply die of heart attacks, that is, unless you write a specific cause of death in the next 40 seconds. And after that, you can manipulate their death circumstances even further, but you only have limited time to do so. You can even control the time of someone's death, and their actions in that time period.

Joey could not neglect that it fascinated him. It was a kind of power not even Yami possessed. It was stronger than Mariks millennium rod, thousand times stronger than all the other millennium items. If he kept the notebook, he would be in control of everything and everyone. He thought of Kaiba, whose presence he couldn't stand. All of his money would be nothing compared to the power Joey would possess.

"No, no" Joey said, regretting his thoughts immediately. "The note must have an effect onto someone's way of thinking".

The Shinigami gave him a questioning look.

"Do I count as the user of the death note, even though I never wrote in it?"

The Shinigami knew what rule made Joey ask that question, and he nostalgically remembered the two fake rules Light wrote into the note.

"No, you are not the user unless you write something inside".

"So I am not a user" Joey left out a breath of relief, happy that he didn't have to kill anyone in order to stay alive himself.

"Not yet" the Shinigami answered.


End file.
